ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605280014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Professional social workers and family members share a wrenching sense of commitment and frustration as they struggle to care for area residents suffering from long-term disabilities.
And you, too, may be feeling their pain - even if you don't have elderly or disabled relatives.
It's a dilemma that could "bankrupt government on every level," said Stephania Munson, head of Montgomery County's Human Services Commission, at a local symposium Thursday on long-term health care.
The increasing financial expense could be a severe hurt in taxpayer's wallets if localities are called upon to fund services traditionally handled by federal and state governments.
For care givers of the elderly and disabled, the mental toll is already overwhelming.
"We are haunted by the realization that we cannot meet the health care needs of all the people that need help," said Mark Cruise, director of the Free Clinic of the New River Valley.
Three people with firsthand experience spoke of devastating struggles in confronting long-term health care.
Before his wife, Norma, came down with multiple sclerosis, "We were doing just fine," said Jack Martin. "Then, boom, we have nothing."
Owner of a small business, Martin remortgaged his paid-off house in Riner after his private health insurance was canceled. He's been unable to obtain Medicaid - the federal-state health care program for the needy and the disabled - for his invalid wife, and assistance with caring for her daily needs has been hard to find.
"We've lost everything financially. Now it's robbing me," Martin said. "Now I'm on the verge of being physically broke. No help from the government."
Jane Robinson cried as she told about caring for her 67-year-old husband, Ray, a former Virginia Tech maintenance worker who has Alzheimer's disease.
Both her children live out of the state, so it's been up to Robinson to handle her husband, who doesn't speak anymore.
"If you try to move him, he's like a big log. I handled him as long as I could," said Robinson, a small woman.
The Robinsons hired a couple to live rent-free in a trailer they own in return for helping out. "They just told me yesterday they were going to move. Now I don't know what I'm going to do," she said.
Local social service agencies have provided some aid with home care and equipment, but Robinson said her private source of help has come from God.
Sam Price invited those in attendance to use the old wheelchair he brought for a month, and experience how it feels to be sore and unable to use the bathroom for hours.
Price also suffers from MS and has been mostly confined to the wheelchair for eight years. Needing a mechanical lift to make his van handicapped-accessible, he conducted yard sales for seven years. Not until a newspaper story told about his situation and a local radio station fund drive could Price afford to buy the equipment.
"Between a child and an older person, why can't we get some help for the handicapped?" said Price, who is not yet 60. "We don't want to be felt sorry for. All we want is some help."
"They can find money for bike trails, big fancy shopping centers. They can find money for the 'smart' road. That's more important than our citizens," Price said.
Martin, Robinson and Price have received some aid from social service agencies. But they said the help was difficult to find and inconsistent.
The health care professionals agreed. "We do not have lots of services," said Reba Spangler of the Montgomery County Health Department. "There are very few out there that take care of someone for 24 hours per day."
"The demand is increasingly heavy. It's very uncommon to have every need met."
A 350 percent increase in the case load of Montgomery County's Adult Protective Services since 1990 is symptomatic of the domestic pressures to care for the elderly, said Linda Eaton of the Department of Social Services.
Additionally, Eaton said, the middle class may be the most vulnerable for a long-term health care calamity. They're not rich and they don't qualify for public assistance, so the burden is likely to be their own.
Human Services Commission member Dan Fleming said the present political trend shifting responsibility from federal and state to local governments may find local taxpayers called upon to pay the cost of long-term health care.
"We have a problem in Montgomery County and it's going to get out of hand soon," said Fleming, who serves on a state League of Older Americans legislative committee studying the issue.
"These are things we take for granted," Munson said. "People lose their physical capabilities, not their heart, soul and mind. It can happen to anybody."
"It can happen to you," Martin said.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff Sam Price, who suffers from multipleby CNBsclerosis, talks about how it feels to be confined to a wheelchair.
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